Delayed plumage maturation in the orchard oriole (Icterus spurius): tests of winter adaptation hypotheses

Summary

Explanations of delayed plumage maturation (DPM) in passerines have focused on potential breeding season advantages for non-definitive (subadult) plumage. In contrast, the molt constraint hypothesis (Rohwer and Butcher 1988) proposes that subadult plumage is a winter adaptation, increasing winter survivorship by decreasing intraspecific aggression (the winter status signaling hypothesis) or predation (the winter crypsis hypothesis). Under the molt constraint hypothesis, nondefinitive breeding plumage is non-adaptive, resulting from species-specific constraints on the number of feathers replaced during the pre-alternate (spring) molt. In studies conducted on an overwintering population of orchard orioles in Panama, I tested predictions of both the winter status signaling and molt constraint hypotheses. Contrary to predictions of winter status signaling, I found no evidence that subadult plumage reduces adult male aggression toward subadults. Agonistic encounters occurred at random with respect to plumage and the intensity of adult male/subadult male encounters was not lower than the intensity of encounters occurring within age classes. Contrary to the molt constraint hypothesis, I found no evidence that the number of feathers exchanged by subadults in their pre-alternate molt is the sole constraint on the development of subadult breeding plumage. The majority of feathers grown by molting subadult orioles during January and February were of non-definitive coloration. These results, together with results of earlier breeding season experiments which tested summer communication hypotheses for DPM in this species, suggest that subadult plumage in the orchard oriole may be non-adaptive and the result of constraints on plumage development. They also indicate, however, that the extent of the pre-alternate molt is not the sole source of that constraint.